The teacher and a campus supervisor talked a gunman into putting down his weapon after he had shot and injured one pupil at Taft Union High School.
Police said the gunman had enough ammunition to kill many people.
The injured student was taken to hospital in an air ambulance and is in a critical condition.
The drama started after 09:00 local time (17:00 GMT) when the gunman, also a student, arrived late, armed with a shotgun, at the school in the small town in California's central valley.
Students and staff telephoned police, but before officers could arrive, the suspect had shot at two people in a class in the science block. One shot missed its target.
As you can see, guns are killing & maiming innocent Americans every day. This would be a humanitarian crisis if it were AIDs.
- Is it time to ban guns?
- Is it time to ban guns from schools?
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If you ban guns, you take away an American's right to bear arms. This is in our constitution so that we can defend ourselves from an oppressive government if the need should ever rise. It's not the guns that are killing people, it's other people and if you disarmed the nation, those same murderers would find other ways to kill people. What's next if they ban guns? Banning video games? Because those apparently breed killers.